weekend bits

My rabbi was at services Friday night. I didn't expect that; he's still recovering from surgery and we weren't expecting to see him so soon. He's taking it very easy and he didn't come Saturday morning, which is probably good. Don't want him pushing himself.

On the original schedule he was going to read torah next Saturday morning. Last week I asked someone else to learn it on contingency (i.e. you'll probably get to do this but you might get bumped). (This is someone who explicitly volunteered to do stuff on short notice; we'd know a couple days out if he was going to get bumped. So it was a request for speedy work, not possibly-wasted work.) On Wednesday he told me oops, he'd forgotten about a commitment that would keep him away that day. So I started to look at the portion myself, because I can't ask anyone else to do possibly-wasted work. Fortunately, I'm now off the hook; I asked the associate rabbi if he could do it (he'll be there anyway) and he said yes. I'd rather have more than a week to learn a portion, even a short one.

This afternoon I went to a friend's baby shower. There seemed to be a "classic Pooh" theme going, and, of course (the baby being a girl), enough pink to set off allergic reactions. :-) It was a fun afternoon; it was nice that so many of her friends could be there.

There was one game (showers are required to have games, apparently). The hostess had taken the names of everyone who would be there and looked them up in some sort of "meanings of baby names" book. She grouped them in batches of ten or so and we were to match the names to the meanings. Of course, many of these so-called meanings are hokey rationalizations applied after the fact, not the origins of the names, but you expect that from a book that attempts to attribute meaning to every name. (Y'know, sometimes a Susan is just a Susan...) Anyway, I looked over the list and said to myself that hey, I know a lot of the relevant cognates in at least three source languages (English, Hebrew, Latin), but that even so, I didn't know half of these names. So I filled in the ones I knew and guessed the rest. I was surprised to get 29 or 41 right, which I gather was the highest score in the room.

No, I have no idea of the basis this source had for saying that my name means "advisor". I can't even get a language connection out of that one. I completely missed "Cara" ("beloved"), but could have gotten it if I'd made a logical leap from the madrigal "Matona mia cara". Duh. I was minorly proud for getting "Barbara".

Speaking of languages (sort of), my friend dglenn has a question about language structure and resulting expressiveness, with a geek twist that made me giggle. Hebrew speakers in particular might be able to help him out.

I had planned to go to a going-away party for a friend who's moving to the west coast, but I've been losing a fight against a headache all evening, and I don't think the noisy environment will help. I hope to connect with him before he leaves town. Worst case, he'll be back in a few weeks to arrange for packing and moving.

sleep questions

I got this from gregbo.

1. How many hours do you normally sleep at night?

About 7.5 on average. Sunday is sleep-in day; it's the only day when I don't have to set an alarm and I usually get about 9 hours then.

2. Do you wish you had more time to sleep? Or do you wish that you slept less?

I wish that I required less sleep, or that there were more hours available in the day.

3. Do you like sleeping?

I like the results but I'm indifferent to the act itself. I mean, it's not like I'm really in a position to notice as it happens...

4. What is the longest continuous period that you have spent awake? Why did you do it?

I'm not certain of the longest continuous period; it was probably a stretch of 36 hours or so, either on a gaming weekend or in college due to homework/exams.

The most spectacular stretch of wakefulness that I remember is a 72-hour period in college during which I got approximately five hours of sleep, in chunks no longer than an hour. It was an outrageously busy semester and all the major assignments were due a once. (I was taking an atypical combination of classes, so this timing wasn't hosing anyone else I knew.) This was when I learned that while caffeine in the wild is good stuff, No-Doz is absolutely evil. And yes, I was following the package instructions correctly.

5. If you were offered the chance to eliminate sleep from your life, with absolutely no negative physical or psychological side effects, would you take it? Why or why not? What if this chance was only possible for you, and not for any of your friends or family, or society at large?

No negative effects? In a heartbeat! Sure, there would be some awkward nights in settings like Pennsic, where I can't just stay up and play on the computer or make noise without bothering others, but in general, the idea that I could run out of interesting things to do in my own home is completely foreign to me. I don't understand people who get bored, unless there are external factors (stuck visiting the annoying relatives, illness precluding you from doing things you enjoy, etc). There are so many things I could do to put that time to use, and that don't require other people (so I don't have to care if no one else is awake)! Elimintating the need for sleep would approximately double my free time; I fail to see how this could be bad.

(I am curious to know whether anyone I know would answer this last question differently. It seems that obvious to me.)